This post is in response to an offline retort to the last post, Nebraska, where the mariner suggested there is a mindset associated with one’s age, not one’s activity:

“Each of us is required by the order of our genetic code to move along through these generations as we age.”

The respondent’s objections were examples of activity. The mariner agrees with the examples offered as demonstrative of a given age. All were activities appropriate to an age related behavior. The respondent is on the right track, however, with the suggestion that wisdom is an element of old age.

Is wisdom dependent on IQ? Is wisdom dependent on extroversion or introversion? Is wisdom dependent on wealth? Is wisdom dependent on what kind of activities one performs? No. Wisdom is a constant among all older folk. The relative value of a given person’s wisdom may change just as the size of a circle changes the relative value of PI. It is generally accepted that “wisdom” is a constant with older age. Wisdom is not smartness. Homo sapiens is smartest in the late teens and early twenties. Countless studies have shown that smartness has an exponential downturn through the rest of the lifespan. Still, wisdom emerges.

If a five-year-old cannot be wise, perhaps they are innocent. They do not know that they are innocent, they just are – it comes with the age.

The teenager, awash in chemicals and self-examination, is in a state of discovery – without trying. They just are.

By the time one is thirty-five, discovery diminishes as maturity becomes the physiological phase. It is the age of accomplishment. How well one accomplishes is a measure of activity (see activity theory). Nonetheless, it is the age where Homo sapiens has the best mix of experience, knowledge, and self-assuredness – without trying.

It is the mariner’s feeling that, holistically, our species is not designed to live much longer than the age of accomplishment as strength and health become issues. Without artificial life extension provided by clothing, artificial heat, improvements in health and medicine, etc, most would increasingly fail and die. Should one live beyond the prime age of accomplishment, participation in accomplishment begins to wane. Yet if one lives beyond critical usefulness, one is considered “wise” simply because they have survived the vagaries associated with long life.

In years gone by, it was interesting that Johnny Carson would invite centenarians to be guests on his television show and inevitably ask them what the secret to longevity was. The answers were often funny but seldom, if ever, scientifically correct.

Wisdom is a constant among all old folk. It means that old folk feel less of a primordial need to accomplish as their mindset has moved on to “be wise”. This can be depressing to some and a relief to others. No matter the emotions or “activity,” physiologically, one is old – just as the child is innocent, the youth discovers, the mature accomplishes, the old are wise. And none of the above even knows that their physiological clock is controlling these underlying patterns.

Perhaps, with another millennia or two, our bodies will catch up with our brains.

In earlier history, the Japanese had an interesting approach to leaders who grew too old. They were given absolute authority to pass judgment on a situation – when asked. They were given supernumerary status because of their wisdom but did not have to don helmets or swords. Consider the U.S. Supreme Court….

Ancient Mariner

The mariner saw the movie Nebraska recently. Bruce Dern provided an excellent performance portraying oldness, isolation and social conflict that often comes with old age. The mariner was pleased with Woody Grant’s (Dern’s character) ability to deal with these elderly issues. It was a good movie. The mariner recommends the movie particularly to those who have a lifetime behind them.

The simple plot and observation of Woody Grant opens the mind to refreshed empathy about senior citizens. The passing of time is a passage through many phases of life from infancy to the centenarian. There is a general assumption that there are four generations in a meaningful lifetime, the growing generation, the creative generation, the accomplishment generation and the retirement generation. Each of us is required by the order of our genetic code to move along through these generations as we age.

Living in the generations of creativity and accomplishment are self-rewarding and enable us to feel that we are important to society whether we are engineers and politicians, or factory workers or engaged in retail, whether we are engaged in social and health services. However, toward the end of the third generation, our bodies tell us that things are changing. Our attitudes begin to shift into a feeling that accomplishment becomes hollow and maybe our roles are a bit out of tune with the creative generation.

Finally, we are retired or at retirement age – it doesn’t matter, we are bound by our genetic instructions. Out of the creative and accomplishment phases of society, we begin to feel that we are not the first team anymore. A few of the elderly have either the money or the opportunity to continue to participate but the underlying genetic structure will not deny that we are passing beyond the dynamic moment in society when newness is created and enforced by productivity.

Because of medical advances, the fourth generation is living longer, on its way to creating a fifth generation: the very aged. What is the impact of old people living longer and longer? Medical research promises trouble free life until you literally wear out around 159-200 years of age.

Yet society’s idea of the work span is not respected beyond the age of 55. Older folk do not fit into the requirements of creativity or accomplishment. They are fit for lesser and lesser roles in the productive generation. Were it not for the few surviving pensions, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, the elderly would have no financial basis for continuing to survive – not considering the requirement to live to 150 years.

There are government roles in this situation. Some form of tax increase must be applied to the aging issue. The boomer retirement bulge does not make it easier. Let’s face the fact that we are an aging population. This is a disadvantage in international politics, where India, China, Argentina and Brazil have rapidly increasing populations in the creative and accomplishment range. Still, the United States has the creative edge and must find ways to integrate the wisdom of the fourth generation into the fabric of a productive role.

Ancient Mariner